Nice try, Republicans. You'd like to end the federal deduction for state and local taxes. That would stick the expensive-to-live-in blue states with more of the nation's bills. It would amount to taxing income that has already gone to taxes. Not gonna happen.

The evening before bow season opened in southwest Montana, I loaded up a bike-trailer with camping gear and pedaled into a heavily timbered valley near Bozeman. Arriving at a hillside of very old Douglas firs well past dark, I hastily made camp as irrational fears of bears and people started to creep over me.

Later that night, something stomped on the branches outside my tent. I grabbed my bear spray and tried to stay calm. Then I heard a bull elk let loose a chilling bugle. Seconds later, more eerie whistles erupted from far up the valley.

WASHINGTON -- It is often difficult to determine if Donald Trump's offenses against national unity and presidential dignity are motivated by ignorance or malice. His current crusade against sideline activism at professional football games features both.

Smart people living in harm's way of hurricanes know to fortify their homes before the storm hits. In a similar vein, the prudent will shore up their financial position before the next recession bears down -- and one surely will. We're all in harm's way of an economic downturn.

How prepared are Americans to weather a financial crisis? The answer is that most are not, to a shocking extent.

Some 46 percent of Americans say they could not scratch up $400 in ready cash to meet an emergency. That percentage would be hard to believe had it not come from the Federal Reserve.

From Aug. 10, 1994, to April 25, 1995, Major League Baseball went on strike. The 1994 World Series was canceled. Fans, furious at both management and the players, voted with their feet by staying away afterward. Average attendance at games fell by more than a fifth, and -- of more urgent concern to the owners -- total revenues dropped by one-third.

WASHINGTON — "Does anybody listen to women when they speak around here?"

There were 11 people seated around the table in the White House Blue Room, debating the future of the Dreamers over honey sesame crispy beef, when House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi tried to make her point — only to find the men talking over her.

The interjection, first reported by The Washington Post's Ashley Parker and confirmed by Pelosi's office, did the trick: "There was, at last, silence, and she was not interrupted again."